I don’t think we can question the poise and maturity of Matt Harvey after last night’s performance, in fact I came away quite impressed by his demeanor. Think about how he handled this start with the knowledge that his call up to the big leagues hangs in the balance with Mets exec J.P Riccardi at the ball park in Buffalo and Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins and Dan Warthen monitoring his performance via SNY. Make up wise Harvey, in my opinion is big league ready, ability wise could be debated.

If Dillon Gee were healthy we don’t have this discussion on whether Harvey is a big leaguer or not but with the prospect that Gee is done for the year, the Mets need a starter and when you look at the options, Matt Harvey stands out as the best of them.

Miguel Batista or Jeremy Hefner? No thank you. We’ve seen all we need to see of Batista who is still making a living off that last game of the year shutout over the Reds. If I had to pick between the two, I’d go with Hefner but since Harvey is in the mix, I’d give Harvey the start on Saturday for sure.

Is Harvey ready for it? It seems it’s a question with many answers. Some folks are against bringing him up fearing a meltdown of some sorts, from what we’ve seen of Harvey from spring training to last night, I hardly think that will happen. Will an early promotion stunt his growth as a pitcher? That’s a great question that I can’t answer but what we know of Harvey is he has a passion to be a major leaguer and he loves to learn and will ask questions and work on his craft to achieve success. My question is how will being on the big league roster with veteran pitchers like R.A. Dickey and Johan Santana, two guys who always make themselves available to young pitchers, hurt Matt Harvey? If anything I think he’s thrive in that environment.

I do worry about the enthusiasm level that Mets fans have for Harvey and Zack Wheeler as well. Between the four game losing streak (7 loses in last 10 games as well) the awful bullpen and ineffective offense against left handed pitching; the fan base is headed toward meltdown mode. For the health and welfare of Mets fans everywhere, I hope the team can take two of three from the Nats.

Where to begin with another losing road trip, tons of Mets road kill all around so lets hit it:

Johan Santana threw his heart and soul into yesterday’s game. It wasn’t pretty but like I’ve said before, sometime the game where your pitcher doesn’t have his best stuff and still finds a way to be effective is as impressive as a 3 hit shutout. But it seems all Santana’ starts end with a no-decision for him and a bullpen induced loss for the Mets.

After the game Jerry Manuel was asked about his bullpen and said it may be time to look for other options, well yeah Jerry since most of your relievers arms are ready to fall off and it’s only June. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. Check out this graph by Justin Bopp of Beyond the Boxscore that shows the average number of relief appearances by all MLB teams. Of course the Mets lead all of baseball in use of relievers and one of Manuel’s big faults is he has absolutely no clue on how to run a bullpen.

Manuel threw a fit about keeping Jenry Mejia on the team saying he needed this kid’ electric arm in the pen. Fine, but Manuel has no idea how to use him. At first Mejia was to be the set up man for Frankie Rodriguez because Kelvin Escobar the guy with the sore arm that Omar Minaya signed over the winter for the job came up with a sore arm. Go figure?

But Manuel decided that the role of set up was too much for the 20 year old Mejia so when Pedro Feliciano screamed PICK ME! PICK ME! Manuel did but then felt Felicano was better served in a situational role. That led to Fernando Nieve getting the nod and he did well for a while until he was used everyday and his arm turned to overcooked linguine. Then Ryaota Igarashi took over the roll or did Igarashi come before Nieve I don’t know, I’m as confused as Jerry Manuel, but anyway, Igarashi was the set up guy until he pulled a hammy. Now all I’ve heard about Japanese baseball players is their dedication to conditioning but leave it to the Mets to find the one slacker in all of Japanese baseball but then again the Mets training staff could help itself by watching some tapes of Jack LaLane. Now the set up role has fallen on Old Uncle Elmer Dessens, the released, DFA, minor league contract, scrap heap pitcher from Mexico. Maybe Uncle Elmer can do the job with his combo special of fastball/slider and if he doesn’t, I’m sure Jerry Manuel can find another sacrificial arm to offer up.

I, like the majority of Mets fans wish the team would have left Jenry Mejia in the minors to work on his craft and blossom but if you’re going to keep him here why not let him be the set up man? His walk rate is high but he throws gas and gets tons of ground ball outs then add in the fact you’ve already screwed him over this season and ruined a year of his development, why not? What could happen? Failure? Shit we’re used to that by now around here. Last night as Adrian Gonzalez’ Granny was sailing over the left field wall I had no emotion at all. This is what it’s come down to, the Mets lose on a walk off Grand Slam home run and my reaction is “Honey? Is dinner ready”?

I have a feeling that by this afternoon, Ollie Perez will accept an assignment to either Buffalo or St. Lonesome. The heat is on Scott Boras more than Ollie to make this move as Ollie isn’t smart enough to know what damage he is doing to his team and his reputation but Boras isn’t a dummy, he knows Perez needs to do this and with players coming out voicing their resentment to his selfishness and that guys at MLB Network speaking out in unison that Perez is a selfish prick, and the fact that the mere site of #46 in the bullpen will incite the crowd at $tit Field, it’s in everyone’s best interest, Perez, Boras, General Manager Jeffey Skill Sets, to bring this distraction to a close.

Just like last year the Mets can’t make up their mind about putting a player on the DL. This time is Luis Castillo and his bad feet. We’ve been hearing for about two weeks that Castillo has foot problems and to the Gimps credit he has hung in there without much production but he’s a real (broken down) trooper but it seems like a trip to the DL is in his immediate future so who gets the call? It looked like Daniel Murphy but last night he was helped off the field in Buffalo with a knee injury after getting knocked over at 2nd base, then there is scuttlebutt that Jesus is coming. Fleiciano that is but he’s not an infielder (could this be the end of GMJ? Please say it’s so GM Jeffey) so look for Ruben Tejada to get the recall notice and that’s fine with me but how about a really bold move and letting Reese Havens get a chance? How great would it be to have Ike Davis and Reese Havens, two former Brooklyn Cyclones make up half the infield?

By the way how much do you think the Mets fortunes would be different if David Eckstein played for the Mets?

What more can be said about what happened last night in Detroit? I’d have to think that Jim Joyce was of sound mind and knew he was in the middle of history here. It wasn’t even a difficult call, Jason Donald was so out that he couldn’t believe he was called safe. All the name calling of Joyce is all emotion and Joyce later admitted he blew the call and Armado Galarraga’s moment of fame but this is becoming a very serious issue for MLB. Last post season we saw umpires screw up badly and that has carried over to the 2010 regular season as well. Joe West and Mark Buehrle, Angel Hernandez the other night with no clue of what the strike zone was during the Rays-Blue Jays game. Bill Hohn tossing Roy Oswalt in the third inning of his start, it’s Umpires Gone Wild. Time for The Used Car Salesman to let Mike Port flex some muscle and start suspending these umpires and get some of the old goats an incentive package to retire and then stay true to the evaluation process and ban some of these incompetent ass’ from working in the post season.

I have been so unbelievably busy between blogging here and doing my This Call To The Bullpen Radio Show and getting ready to cheer on the Boston Celtics to Banner 18 and doing my job that pays me in real money and benefits that I’ve been looking to hire an assistant to help me out with some of my daily tasks and after reading this story in today’s NY Post I’m hoping Ms. Debralee Lorenzana sends me her resume as I would really, REALLY love to hire her for the position any position, all positions, missionary position. If you want to be accepted for who you are Ms. Lorenzana, you’ve come to the right place, you will welcomed with open arms.

Tickets

The Mets are looking great this year and The Eddie Kranepool Society
keeps you up to date on the good bad and the ugly. If you are looking for Mets Tickets, you must visit Coast To Coast Tickets for all your ticket needs. CTC carries MLB Tickets as well as some of the best priced Concert Tickets on the web and don't forget they also carry Yankees Tickets.